Thursday, February 22, 2018

22 February 1931 - Vélez Takes A Fall

On 22 February 1931, Vélez Sársfield suffered the only loss of their 25-game Pan-American tour, losing to Fall River 5-2.

Vélez had already played fifteen matches of their tour, which included stops in Chile, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, and three games in the United States. The first of the US matches was a 3-1 win over the New York Stars in Brooklyn on 21 February. They then traveled down to Rhode Island for their next match against Fall River.

But they were not facing the Fall River Marksmen, the defending ASL champions. Owner Sam Mark had moved that team to New York where they merged with New York SC to play as the Yankees. Mark offered the use of his Rhode Island stadium to any team willing to relocate there, however, so the Providence Gold Bugs took him up on the offer and became the new Fall River FC.

The 5-2 was the only loss of the tour for Vélez, to go along with 20 wins and 4 draws. And it was one of the high points of Fall River's season, followed by another friendly win three months later over Celtic.